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Uncle Henry
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) Uncle Henry is a fictional character invented by L. Frank Baum. He is introduced in Baum's first Oz book titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in 1900. Henry is the old Uncle of Dorothy Gale and husband of Aunt Em, and lived with them on a rather small and very poor farm in Kansas. In Baum's later Oz books, when the lovely child Queen of Oz named Princess Ozma became Dorothy's best friend and crowned her as an official Princess of Oz, Henry and his wife eventually abandoned their farm forever and moved to the magical Land of Oz to live happily ever after. Thus, escaping their bleak existences as they were consumed and trapped in poverty and bankruptcy. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) Personality & Lifestyle Uncle Henry is portrayed as a very poor and even a depressed farmer, an isolated man who only knows the ways of farm-life. He has no children of his own and presumably never will. In a sense, Henry views his niece Dorothy as his daughter, even though the book never clarifies if Dorothy is blood related, adopted or was simply sent to his farm to be a farmhand to help the adults who eventually grew very fond of her. An average day for Uncle Henry is waking up at dawn to work hard all day long until dusk. If not attending to the barn and sheds were his horses are kept, or milking the cows, Henry is busy growing crops on the prairies to bring prosperity to his small farm and put food on the table and make ends meet. Dorothy, being a mere child spends much of her time playing with her pet dog called Toto, or helping Aunt Em around the house. She pitches in on the daily chores, such as washing the dishes, watering the cabbages or looking after the chickens and their coops. Unlike the 1939 movie, in the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz book, Baum says they live in a one room home, much like a shack. The home was once painted white, but the hot Kansas sun chipped most of the paint away, ultimately leaving it just as dull and gray as everything else around. Inside the house is only a wooden table with three or four chairs, a rusted cooking stove and the beds. Uncle Henry shares a big bed with Aunt Em in one corner of the room, and Dorothy has a small bed for her and Toto in another corner of the room. In the middle of this room it is said that there is a trap door that substitutes for a cellar, leading straight down into a very dark hole in the ground for everyone to climb into and seek shelter if a cyclone was to ever come near or hit the farm. History Due to the cyclone carrying away the farmhouse in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Henry mortgaged his farm in order to rebuild a new one. This crisis, combined with the stress of Dorothy's prolonged disappearance and sudden reappearance, took a toll on his health, and his doctor ordered him to take a vacation from all the labor. He took Dorothy with him on an ocean voyage to Australia, where he had cousins, but during this trip Dorothy was lost again during a storm, and for several weeks Henry believed she had drowned. She suddenly returned again, courtesy of the Nome King's Magic Belt (Ozma of Oz). On their return to America, Henry visited Bill Hugson, a relative of his wife, while Dorothy stayed with friends in San Francisco. While traveling to meet him, Dorothy was lost in an earthquake and thought to be dead. Henry traveled back to Kansas alone, where Dorothy later reappeared after having enjoyed another adventure to the Land of Oz. (Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz) Eventually, the cost of the cyclone damage and the travel expenses added up. Henry and Em confessed to Dorothy the extent of their financial problems, and revealed to her that their farm was on the verge of foreclosure. Dorothy solved this problem for them by bringing them to live with her in the Emerald City, as permanent guests of Princess Ozma. They were given a suite of rooms in the Royal Palace of Oz and Henry was given the job of "Keeper of the Jewels" in Ozma's treasure hoard for the purpose of keeping him occupied. However, both Henry and Emily later decided to live together in a little cottage on the outskirts of the Emerald City as the city's extravagance was a little too luxurious for their liking. (The Emerald City of Oz) Book Appearances * The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (first appearance) * Ozma of Oz * Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz * The Emerald City of Oz * The Patchwork Girl of Oz * The Scarecrow of Oz * The Tin Woodman of Oz (mentioned) * The Magic of Oz * Glinda of Oz * The Royal Book of Oz (brief mention) * Grampa in Oz (mentioned) * The Scalawagons of Oz Background Uncle Henry has been featured slightly more than Aunt Em in the Oz books, despite being less featured than Auntie Em in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz In MGM's 1939 classic Musical adaptation The Wizard of Oz, Uncle Henry is played by Charley Grapewin. Return to Oz Uncle Henry is played by Matt Clark. In this version Uncle Henry had to build a whole new home after the cyclone hit the Kansas farm and carried the old farmhouse away six months prior. We even learn that he had broke his leg during the storm. By the end of the film, the house is finally finished and even nicer than the one that had been swept away to Oz. '' Other Versions Frank Alexander portrayed him as a villain in Larry Semon's 1925 Wizard of Oz film. This character is totally absent in The Wizard of Oz in Concert: Dreams Come True. He was played by David Alan Grier in the ABC made-for-television movie The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005). In the VeggieTales episode "The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's", both Uncle Henry and his wife Aunt Em were substituted by a father (Dad Asparagus) to retell "The Prodigal Son", a biblical parable from the Gospel. In the American television program Lost, there is a character named Benjamin Linus who told survivors his name was Henry Gale and claimed to have arrived on the island via hot air balloon. He is voiced by Stephen Root in "Tom and Jerry and the Wizard of Oz". Category:Oz Book Characters Category:Oz Movie Characters Category:American Visitors to Oz